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Rationalizing cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition for maximal efficacy and minimal adverse events.

New information indicates that cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is constitutively expressed in several tissues, including brain, lung, pancreas, kidney, and ovary, and plays an important role in renal and gastrointestinal function. Selective COX-2 inhibition has been associated in animal studies with impairment of ulcer healing and renal function and inhibition of prostacyclin, an effect that inhibits vasodilation without inhibiting platelet aggregation. The clinical consequences, if any, of these effects remain to be determined in long-term studies in humans. The premise that selective COX-2 inhibitors will cause less gastrointestinal toxicity than nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs that inhibit both COX isoforms needs to take into account the low toxicity of nabumetone. The gastrointestinal safety profile of this nonacidic, dual COX inhibitor that does not undergo enterohepatic circulation has been evaluated in extensive clinical trials. The data submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration in the New Drug Application for nabumetone (Relafen), the comparative trials subsequently completed, the published databases of the comparative gastrointestinal toxicity of various nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and the meta-analysis published in this issue of The American Journal of Medicine (Schoenfeld, page 48S) indicate that nabumetone has the lowest incidence of gastrointestinal toxicity among the extensively studied NSAIDs. Overall, the incidence is approximately 10-fold less than with comparator drugs. This rate is an appropriate current reference against which the gastrointestinal toxicity of COX-2 inhibitors can be compared.

Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal↗

Diffusion kernel-based logistic regression models for protein function prediction.

Assigning functions to unknown proteins is one of the most important problems in proteomics. Several approaches have used protein-protein interaction data to predict protein functions. We previously developed a Markov random field (MRF) based method to infer a protein's functions using protein-protein interaction data and the functional annotations of its protein interaction partners. In the original model, only direct interactions were considered and each function was considered separately. In this study, we develop a new model which extends direct interactions to all neighboring proteins, and one function to multiple functions. The goal is to understand a protein's function based on information on all the neighboring proteins in the interaction network. We first developed a novel kernel logistic regression (KLR) method based on diffusion kernels for protein interaction networks. The diffusion kernels provide means to incorporate all neighbors of proteins in the network. Second, we identified a set of functions that are highly correlated with the function of interest, referred to as the correlated functions, using the chi-square test. Third, the correlated functions were incorporated into our new KLR model. Fourth, we extended our model by incorporating multiple biological data sources such as protein domains, protein complexes, and gene expressions by converting them into networks. We showed that the KLR approach of incorporating all protein neighbors significantly improved the accuracy of protein function predictions over the MRF model. The incorporation of multiple data sets also improved prediction accuracy. The prediction accuracy is comparable to another protein function classifier based on the support vector machine (SVM), using a diffusion kernel. The advantages of the KLR model include its simplicity as well as its ability to explore the contribution of neighbors to the functions of proteins of interest.

Databases, Protein↗

A model validation and consensus building environment.

Over half of the failures in drug development are due to problems with the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity, or ADME/Tox properties of a candidate compound. The utilization of in silico tools to predict ADME/Tox and physicochemical properties holds great potential for reducing the attrition rate in drug research and development, as this technology can prioritize candidate compounds in the pharmaceutical R&D pipeline. However, a major concern surrounding the use of in silico ADME/Tox technology is the reliability of the property predictions. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. has created a computational environment that addresses these concerns. This environment is referred to as KnowItAll. Within this platform are encoded a number of ADME/Tox predictors, the ability to validate these predictors with/without in-house data and models, as well as build a 'consensus' model that may be a much better model than any of the individual predictive model. The KnowItAll system can handle two types of predictions: real number and categorical classification.

Databases, Factual↗

RiceGAAS: an automated annotation system and database for rice genome sequence.

An extensive effort of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) has resulted in rapid accumulation of genome sequence, and >137 Mb has already been made available to the public domain as of August 2001. This requires a high-throughput annotation scheme to extract biologically useful and timely information from the sequence data on a regular basis. A new automated annotation system and database called Rice Genome Automated Annotation System (RiceGAAS) has been developed to execute a reliable and up-to-date analysis of the genome sequence as well as to store and retrieve the results of annotation. The system has the following functional features: (i) collection of rice genome sequences from GenBank; (ii) execution of gene prediction and homology search programs; (iii) integration of results from various analyses and automatic interpretation of coding regions; (iv) re-execution of analysis, integration and automatic interpretation with the latest entries in reference databases; (v) integrated visualization of the stored data using web-based graphical view. RiceGAAS also has a data submission mechanism that allows public users to perform fully automated annotation of their own sequences. The system can be accessed at http://RiceGAAS.dna.affrc.go.jp/.

Automation↗

Characterisation of HIV-1 Gag Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Epitopes in the Southern African Region-A Systematic Review.

During early HIV-1 infection, robust Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses are mostly targeted at immunodominant Gag p24 epitopes to reduce HIV-1 viraemia to a set-point. The aim of this study was to review the current body of knowledge on HIV-1 Gag CTL epitopes in the southern African region where subtype C is prevalent. Peer-reviewed records were obtained from three databases: PubMed Central, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus, using the following search terms: HIV subtype C Gag epitopes, and HIV clade C Gag epitopes. The search results were restricted to countries within the southern African region, and only data published in English and between the years 2000-2025 were considered for this review. The search from the three databases produced a total of 2103 peer-reviewed records, and 49 records were included in the review. The majority of studies (58.44%) were conducted in South Africa, followed by Botswana (15.58%), Zambia (10.39%), Malawi (7.79%), Zimbabwe (6.49%) and Angola (1.30%). There were no studies identified from other southern African countries. A total of 60 Gag CTL epitopes were identified, of which 17 (28.33%) were located within the matrix protein (p17), 33 (55.00%) within the capsid protein (p24), and 4 (6.67%) within the Gag polyprotein (p2p7p1p6). The commonly detected immunodominant epitopes were mostly located within the Gag p24 protein; and included TPQDLNTML (TL9, Gag p24 48-56) and TSTLQEQIGW (TW10, Gag p24 108-117) present at 16.00% and 13.3%, respectively. The proportion of HLA-A, B and C allotypes in this systematic review were 18%, 78%, and 4%, respectively. The more common HLA-B allotypes that restrict immunodominant Gag epitopes and facilitate better control of HIV-1 were HLA-B*57, -B*58:01, -B*42:01 and -B*81:01. This systematic review has provided important insights into the description of immunodominant Gag epitopes and HLA-I alleles that contribute to the control of HIV-1 viraemia in the southern African region. It has also exposed that some CTL epitopes identified in the southern African studies are not reported on the Los Alamos HIV database (LANL HIV database). This highlights a need to have this database updated with this information as it is used as a reference for epitopes. This review could provide insights into the design of an epitope-based HIV-1 vaccine that would also be effective in the southern African region.

Humans↗

Mining the Plasmodium genome database to define organellar function: what does the apicoplast do?

Apicomplexan species constitute a diverse group of parasitic protozoa, which are responsible for a wide range of diseases in many organisms. Despite differences in the diseases they cause, these parasites share an underlying biology, from the genetic controls used to differentiate through the complex parasite life cycle, to the basic biochemical pathways employed for intracellular survival, to the distinctive cell biology necessary for host cell attachment and invasion. Different parasites lend themselves to the study of different aspects of parasite biology: Eimeria for biochemical studies, Toxoplasma for molecular genetic and cell biological investigation, etc. The Plasmodium falciparum Genome Project contributes the first large-scale genomic sequence for an apicomplexan parasite. The Plasmodium Genome Database (http://PlasmoDB.org) has been designed to permit individual investigators to ask their own questions, even prior to formal release of the reference P. falciparum genome sequence. As a case in point, PlasmoDB has been exploited to identify metabolic pathways associated with the apicomplexan plastid, or 'apicoplast' - an essential organelle derived by secondary endosymbiosis of an alga, and retention of the algal plastid.

Animals↗

Automatic amide I frequency selection for rapid quantification of protein secondary structure from Fourier transform infrared spectra of proteins.

Here we report the development of a new neural network based approach for rapid quantification of protein secondary structure from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of proteins. A technique for efficiently reducing the amount of spectral data by almost 90% is suggested to facilitate faster neural network analysis. Additionally, an automatic procedure is introduced for selecting only those regions within the amide I band of protein FTIR spectra, which can be best related to secondary structure contents by subsequent neural network analysis. Based on a given reference set of FTIR spectra from proteins with known secondary structure, a subset of merely 29 out of 101 amide I absorbance values could be identified, which lead to an improved prediction accuracy. The average prediction accuracy achieved for helix, sheet, turn, bend, and other is 4.96% which is better than that achieved by alternative methods that have been previously reported indicating the significant potential of this approach. Our suggested automatic amide I frequency selection procedure may be easily extended to identify promising regions from spectral data recorded by other spectroscopic techniques, like for example circular dichroism spectroscopy.

Algorithms↗

LIGAND: chemical database for enzyme reactions.

MOTIVATION: The existing molecular biology databases focus on the sequence and structural aspects of biological macromolecules, i.e. DNAs, RNAs and proteins. However, in order to understand the functional aspects, it is essential to computerize the interaction of these molecules. Furthermore, living cells contain additional molecules, such as metabolic compounds and metal ions, that may also be considered as parts of the basic building blocks of life, but are not well organized in public databases. LIGAND chemical database is our attempt to solve these problems, at least for enzymatic reactions. RESULTS: LIGAND consists of two sections: ENZYME and COMPOUND. The ENZYME section is an extension of previous studies (Suyama et al. , Comput. Applic. Biosci., 9, 9-15, 1993), and it is a flat-file representation of 3303 enzymes and 2976 enzymatic reactions in the chemical equation format that can be parsed by machine. The COMPOUND section has been newly constructed for information on the nomenclature and chemical structures of compounds. It contains 5383 chemical compounds. Both ENZYME and COMPOUND entries contain rich cross-reference information, most of which is automatically generated by the DBGET/LinkDB system, thus providing the linkage between chemical and biological databases. LIGAND is updated daily, tightly coupled with the KEGG metabolic pathway database, and forms the basis for reconstruction and computation of pathways. AVAILABILITY: LIGAND can be accessed through the DBGET/LinkDB and KEGG systems in the Japanese GenomeNet database service via http://www.genome.ad.jp/. The flat-file format of the LIGAND database can be downloaded by anonymous FTP via ftp://kegg. genome.adjp/molecules/ligand/. CONTACT: goto@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp; nishioka@scl.kyoto-u.ac.jp; kanehisa@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Computational Biology↗

Bridging chemical and biological space: "target fishing" using 2D and 3D molecular descriptors.

Bridging chemical and biological space is the key to drug discovery and development. Typically, cheminformatics methods operate under the assumption that similar chemicals have similar biological activity. Ideally then, one could predict a drug's biological function(s) given only its chemical structure by similarity searching in libraries of compounds with known activities. In practice, effectively choosing a similarity metric is case dependent. This work compares both 2D and 3D chemical descriptors as tools for predicting the biological targets of ligand probes, on the basis of their similarity to reference molecules in a 46,000 compound, biologically annotated chemical database. Overall, we found that the 2D methods employed here outperform the 3D (88% vs 67% success) in correct target prediction. However, the 3D descriptors proved superior in cases of probes with low structural similarity to other compounds in the database (singletons). Additionally, the 3D method (FEPOPS) shows promise for providing pharmacophoric alignment of the small molecules' chemical features consistent with those seen in experimental ligand/ receptor complexes. These results suggest that querying annotated chemical databases with a systematic combination of both 2D and 3D descriptors will prove more effective than employing single methods.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Allele-specific Holliday junction formation: a new mechanism of allelic discrimination for SNP scoring.

We report here a new mechanism for allelic discrimination--allele-specific Holliday Junction formation. The Holliday Junction (HJ) is a unique DNA structure that can be formed in a sequence-nonspecific manner by routine PCR. To cause the PCR-based HJ formation to occur in an allele-specific manner, the PCR primers are manipulated such that an extra mismatch next to a SNP of interest is introduced between a target and a reference amplicon and a GC-clamp is added. Based on this new mechanism, novel SNP genotyping methods were developed, including a homogeneous fluorescence polarization (FP) competition assay that requires neither labeled primers/probes nor expensive enzymes/substrates. Using this novel genotyping technology, we were able to convert >95% of SNP sequences into genotyping assays that work well under a universal set of assay conditions and achieved 100% accuracy in clinical samples.

Alleles↗

Cross-platform comparability of microarray technology: intra-platform consistency and appropriate data analysis procedures are essential.

BACKGROUND: The acceptance of microarray technology in regulatory decision-making is being challenged by the existence of various platforms and data analysis methods. A recent report (E. Marshall, Science, 306, 630-631, 2004), by extensively citing the study of Tan et al. (Nucleic Acids Res., 31, 5676-5684, 2003), portrays a disturbingly negative picture of the cross-platform comparability, and, hence, the reliability of microarray technology. RESULTS: We reanalyzed Tan's dataset and found that the intra-platform consistency was low, indicating a problem in experimental procedures from which the dataset was generated. Furthermore, by using three gene selection methods (i.e., p-value ranking, fold-change ranking, and Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM)) on the same dataset we found that p-value ranking (the method emphasized by Tan et al.) results in much lower cross-platform concordance compared to fold-change ranking or SAM. Therefore, the low cross-platform concordance reported in Tan's study appears to be mainly due to a combination of low intra-platform consistency and a poor choice of data analysis procedures, instead of inherent technical differences among different platforms, as suggested by Tan et al. and Marshall. CONCLUSION: Our results illustrate the importance of establishing calibrated RNA samples and reference datasets to objectively assess the performance of different microarray platforms and the proficiency of individual laboratories as well as the merits of various data analysis procedures. Thus, we are progressively coordinating the MAQC project, a community-wide effort for microarray quality control.

Databases, Genetic↗

BRENDA, the enzyme database: updates and major new developments.

BRENDA (BRaunschweig ENzyme DAtabase) represents a comprehensive collection of enzyme and metabolic information, based on primary literature. The database contains data from at least 83,000 different enzymes from 9800 different organisms, classified in approximately 4200 EC numbers. BRENDA includes biochemical and molecular information on classification and nomenclature, reaction and specificity, functional parameters, occurrence, enzyme structure, application, engineering, stability, disease, isolation and preparation, links and literature references. The data are extracted and evaluated from approximately 46,000 references, which are linked to PubMed as long as the reference is cited in PubMed. In the past year BRENDA has undergone major changes including a large increase in updating speed with >50% of all data updated in 2002 or in the first half of 2003, the development of a new EC-tree browser, a taxonomy-tree browser, a chemical substructure search engine for ligand structure, the development of controlled vocabulary, an ontology for some information fields and a thesaurus for ligand names. The database is accessible free of charge to the academic community at http://www.brenda. uni-koeln.de.

Animals↗

Rebuilding flavodoxin from C alpha coordinates: a test study.

The tertiary structure of flavodoxin has been model built from only the X-ray crystallographic alpha-carbon coordinates. Main-chain atoms were generated from a dictionary of backbone structures. Side-chain conformations were initially set according to observed statistical distributions, clashes were resolved with reference to other knowledge-based parameters, and finally, energy minimization was applied. The RMSD of the model was 1.7 A across all atoms to the native structure. Regular secondary structural elements were modeled more accurately than other regions. About 40% of the chi 1 torsional angles were modeled correctly. Packing of side chains in the core was energetically stable but diverged significantly from the native structure in some regions. The modeling of protein structures is increasing in popularity but relatively few checks have been applied to determine the accuracy of the approach. In this work a variety of parameters have been examined. It was found that close contacts, and hydrogen-bonding patterns could identify poorly packed residues. These tests, however, did not indicate which residues had a conformation different from the native structure or how to move such residues to bring them into agreement. To assist in the modeling of interacting side chains a database of known interactions has been prepared.

Flavodoxin↗

Site and type of mutations in the factor VIII gene in patients and carriers of haemophilia A.

Haemophilia A is an X-linked bleeding disorder caused by reduced or absent FVIII (FVIII) protein caused by mutations in the FVIII gene. We have used Southern blotting and chemical mismatch analysis (CMA) to identify the mutations causing haemophilia A in 59 local or referred patients or carriers of haemophilia A. Southern blot analysis of 87 families with FVIII : C < 5% identified 31 as positive for the intron 22 inversion. Analysis of 19 of the inversion-negative families and a further nine families with mild or moderate haemophilia A by CMA resulted in the identification of a heterogeneous spectrum of mutations in the FVIII gene comprising 21 single base-pair substitutions and nine deletions. Seventeen of the base-pair substitutions are missense, two nonsense, and two are splice-site mutations. Two patients were found to have compound mutations with two mutations identified on a single X chromosome. Six of the point mutations and six of the deletions have not been reported previously in the haemophilia A mutation database. Unusually, a missense mutation, as well as deletion and splice-site mutations, was found to be associated with exon-skipping events.

Factor VIII↗

Functional variant of CYP4A11 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid synthase is associated with essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND: The CYP4A11 arachidonic acid monooxygenase oxidizes endogenous arachidonic acid (AA) to 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE), a metabolite with renovascular and tubular functions. Mice with targeted disruption of Cyp4a14, a murine homologue of CYP4A11, have severe hypertension. We combined molecular and biochemical approaches to identify a functional variant of the CYP4A11 20-HETE synthase and determine its association with hypertensive status in 2 independent human populations. METHODS AND RESULTS: A thymidine-to-cytosine polymorphism at nucleotide 8590 resulted in a phenylalanine-to-serine substitution at amino acid 434. Expression of cDNA with serine 434 resulted in a protein with a significantly reduced AA and lauric acid metabolizing activity. In a population of 512 whites from Tennessee, the age, body mass index, and gender-adjusted OR of having hypertension attributable to the 8590C variant was 2.31 (95% CI 1.41 to 3.78) compared with the reference 8590TT genotype. In subjects from the Framingham Heart Study, the adjusted ORs of hypertension associated with the 8590C variant were 1.23 (CI 0.94 to 1.59; n=1538) in all subjects and 1.33 (CI 1.01 to 1.77; n=1331) when subjects with diabetes were excluded. No association of the variant with hypertension was detected in a population of 120 blacks. CONCLUSIONS: We identified a variant of the human CYP4A11 (T8590C) that encodes for a monooxygenase with reduced 20-HETE synthase activity. The association of the T8590C variant with hypertension supports its role as a polygenic determinant of blood pressure control in humans, and results obtained from the large population database suggest that the relevance of the variant may vary according to hypertension comorbidity.

Adult↗

A comprehensive phylogeny of mammalian PRNP gene reveals no influence of prion misfolding propensity on the evolution of this gene.

Prion diseases are invariably fatal neurodegenerative diseases that affect some mammalian species, including humans. These diseases are caused by the misfolding of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a pathologic isoform (PrPSc). The prion protein is highly conserved across mammals. However, some species present lower susceptibility to prion diseases than others. This behavior is likely explained by the resistance of these animal species' prion proteins to acquire a pathological conformation. Therefore, the tertiary structure and interspecific variations encoded in the primary structure determine a PrP proneness to misfolding. For this reason, we studied the PRNP gene from a phylogenetic perspective, potentially unveiling evolutionary events related to prion diseases. We generated a database of mammalian PRNP sequences and constructed phylogenetic trees based on nucleotide sequence variations. We aligned 1146 PRNP gene sequences from 901 different mammalian species and built a PRNP gene-based phylogenetic tree. Classical phylogenetic orders tend to maintain their clustering in the PRNP gene tree. Nonetheless, the few differences found may shed some light on potential evolutionary constraints posed by prion disorders. Moreover, this phylogenetic study was combined with an in vitro misfolding study. Protein Misfolding Shaking Amplification (PMSA) was used to evaluate the tendency of many of these proteins to misfold. This comprehensive analysis spanned a wide range of mammalian prion protein sequences and included analysis of different variants with a focus on the human rs1799990 locus (c.385A&#x2009;>&#x2009;G, p.Met129Val). This variant, widely linked to prion disease susceptibility in humans, is explored in the context of its evolutionary origins. All in all, our PRNP gene-based tree, despite showing some topological differences with the reference species tree that could be in some cases related to prion disease susceptibility, is not significantly distinct. Indicating that the proneness of a PrP variant to misfold spontaneously has not shaped the evolution of this gene.

Phylogeny↗

Alternatively and constitutively spliced exons are subject to different evolutionary forces.

There has been a controversy on whether alternatively spliced exons (ASEs) evolve faster than constitutively spliced exons (CSEs). Although it has been noted that ASEs are subject to weaker selective constraints than CSEs, so they evolve faster, there have also been studies that indicated slower evolution in ASEs than in CSEs. In this study, we retrieve more than 5,000 human-mouse orthologous exons and calculate the synonymous (KS) and nonsynonymous (KA) substitution rates in these exons. Our results show that ASEs have higher KA values and higher KA/KS ratios than CSEs, indicating faster amino acid-level evolution in ASEs. The faster evolution may be in part due to weaker selective constraints. It is also possible that the faster rate is in part due to faster functional evolution in ASEs. On the other hand, the majority of ASEs have lower KS values than CSEs. With reference to the substitution rate in introns, we show that the KS values in ASEs are close to the neutral substitution rate, whereas the synonymous substitution rate in CSEs has likely been accelerated. The elevated synonymous rate in CSEs is not related to CpG dinucleotides or low-complexity regions of protein but may be weakly related to codon usage bias. The overall trends of higher KA and lower KS in ASEs than in CSEs are also observed in human-rat and mouse-rat comparisons. Therefore, our observations hold for mammals of different molecular clocks.

Animals↗

Yolk sac tumours of the ovary: an update.

AIMS: Yolk sac tumours of the ovary (YST), also called endodermal sinus tumours (EST) are rare and highly malignant tumours of utmost importance occurring in children and young adults. In the past, outcome was very poor and the disease was almost always fatal. With the refinement of chemotherapeutic regimens in the last several decades, survival rates have improved dramatically and fertility preserving surgery has become possible. The aim of this review is to provide the reader with an analysis of the available literature and a rational approach to patient management. METHODS: We performed a literature search in the PubMed database and the reference lists of relevant articles concerning yolk sac tumours of the ovary. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION: There are no randomised studies relating to the management of YST of the ovary. The available literature is composed of retrospective reviews and case reports that span several decades. Prognosis nowadays is good in stage I and II but still comparable to that of ovarian epithelial cancer in stage III and IV. The overall good prognosis is due to the fact that most of ovarian YST are diagnosed at an early stage where 5years survival reaches 95%. Appropriate surgical treatment for patients where fertility needs to be preserved consists in laparotomy with unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, peritoneal cytologic studies, omentectomy, multiple peritoneal and abdominal biopsies and resection of all visible disease. Three courses of BEP (bleomycin, etoposide, cisplatin) is the current standard therapy and four courses is recommended in case of bulky residual disease after surgery. Serum alpha-feto-protein (AFP) is a useful marker for the diagnosis and management of YST.

Endodermal Sinus Tumor↗